Transformation of libraries happens not only due to development of the information and communication technologies, but it also depends on library professionals’ awareness of the existing processes. Librarians, administrators, managers — those who make decisions — must have a particular responsibility. The method of interviewing, used in this article, provides an opportunity to reveal the personal subjective experience and management practices of the head of one of the largest federal libraries — the State Public Historical Library of Russia. The conversation with M.D. Afanasyev demonstrates the formed position on the role of libraries as a social institution, and the motivational value of this concept for targeted actions aimed at finding the place of libraries in the modern society.

The article postulates the professional, managerial aspects of the transformation program of the Russian Library Association, as whose President M.D. Afanasyev was elected in 2017. There is discussed the necessity of development of research and educational activities, the need for training of the library staff that will cover the requirements for libraries development in a digital and virtual reality. On the basis of subjective observations and a comparative analysis, there is underlined the importance of a correct professional evaluation of the development trends, in terms of their depth and time period of existence. The article substantiates the importance to develop and implement innovative solutions, with expert groups involved, including those for development of the National Electronic Library; to actively build a dialogue with the authorities, aimed at protecting the interests of libraries as a social institution and supporting element of sustainable development; as well as to maintain the significance of libraries in the information society, by ensuring the permanent transparency of information about them and strengthening the public relations.

The article presents analytical review of the events and key presentations of the Annual Meeting of the Heads of Federal and Central Regional Libraries of Russia, held in St. Petersburg on 14—16 November, 2017. Within the framework of the Meeting there were organized the plenary sessions and round tables (“Transformation of library systems. Regulatory support”, “Program of support for children and young adults reading in the Russian Federation: challenges and opportunities”, and “Formation and use of the Union catalogue of the libraries of Russia”). The official ceremony of awarding the winners of the All-Russian contest “Librarian 2017”, established by the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation and carried out by the National Library of Russia and St. Petersburg State Institute of Culture under the auspices of the Russian Library Association. The report “On the status and prospects of the development of library-information activity in the Russian Federation” was presented by Vladimir V. Aristarkhov, the First Deputy Minister of Culture of the Russian Federation. He outlined the main priorities of the development of librarianship in Russia. In the reports of the participants of the Meeting were raised the problems of preservation of library collections and training of library staff, as well as discussed the program of support for children and young adults reading in the Russian Federation, and other important issues of the development of librarianship in the country.

Synthesis of the Russian State Library’s main activities that correspond to its functions as a national library of the country provides an opportunity to focus on the issues of transformation of such a multifunctional, complex, non-linear evolving system as this. This focus can help to identify the communication system that would allow to fit into the digital age, while maintaining the traditional functions, to transform the traditional types and forms of activities, to enrich and create new technologies and new services for users. First of all, this applies to the activities associated with acquisition and processing of legal deposit copies of documents in electronic form, maintenance of the register of book monuments, provision of the universal collection of documents for the use of society via the state information system “National Electronic Library”, etc.

Technological changes, which correct the functionality of national library, contribute to modernization of the management system and increase of the responsibility level. This requires improving the mechanisms of legislative and normative regulation and development of communication networks. A special role in these processes belongs to scientific communications, implemented through research, scientific-methodical and scientific-organizational activities.

The increasing saturation of the library space with information and communication technologies leads to a change in its structure and creates a more comfortable environment for each user’s creative work. The used methodology allows to focus on development by the library of social and cultural communications, which strengthen the social role of the institutions of cultural heritage, attracting public attention to the problems of culture development and its role in solving social problems.

The article is devoted to the 6th All-Russian Forum of Public Libraries, held on 17—18 November, 2017 in St. Petersburg, which became the main event of library discourse at the Saint-Petersburg International Cultural Forum. It was organized by the National Library of Russia and the Russian Library Association. To the organization of the Forum contributed the St. Petersburg Committee for Culture, the Central City Public Library named after V.V. Mayakovsky, A. Pushkin Central City Children’s Library and the centralized library systems of Kronstadt and Nevsky districts, provided their facilities for holding the round tables.

There are considered the problems of transformation of public libraries in the twentieth century, and features of the present stage of development of libraries on the basis of new information technologies and social norms, which are the main issues that invited a lively discussion among the Forum participants. There are presented differences in the approaches to modernization and optimization of public libraries of Moscow and St.-Petersburg, the experience of attracting sponsorship for renovation of libraries. There is revealed the contribution of the Soviet period in the formation of the library system of the country and the difficulty of adapting to the economic policy of the new time. The main causes of reducing availability of library services, primarily in rural areas, are discussed. The conclusion is made on the inconsistency of state library policy, as evidenced by the absence of the concept of the development of librarianship for the future, and by the approval of the network normative standards, which may result in closing of up to 30% of the libraries in different regions of the country.

The modern public libraries of our country are involved in the activities on implementation of the state national and cultural policy. Lately their priority targets have focused on ensuring interethnic harmony in society, conceived by the libraries as the work aimed at the development of intercultural dialogue. The article highlights theoretical and practical aspects of the development of intercultural dialogue in public libraries. The definition of intercultural dialogue as a process aimed at open and polite communication between different peoples, based on mutual understanding and respect, is given. The library activities can promote fostering skills and creating environment for its widening. The author shows that the basics of the modern intercultural library activities was laid by the work of Soviet mass libraries aimed at studying the reading interests of the peoples in the multinational USSR and taking part in their international education. At present, the libraries contribute to the development of titular ethnic groups national cultures and facilitate the process of mutual enrichment of cultures of different peoples of our country in accordance with “The Foundations of the State Cultural Policy”. Theoretical basis of intercultural library activities is supplemented by the dissertation research works defended in the different regions of our country. It allows to conclude that in the general structure of the modern library science there has been formed an independent discipline named the “Library Ethnology”. To become one of the main translators of the state national and cultural policy the public libraries have developed their own approaches resulted in creating Centers for ethnic interaction and intercultural communication, as well as the Centers of national literatures. As a rule, the main goal of their activities is creation of the conditions for the development of intercultural and interethnic relations among the users, basing on the values of multinational Russian society, the respect of the rights and freedoms of individual, and maintenance of multi-ethnic peace and conciliation in the region.

Research libraries, the system of which has been developed for solving library and information tasks within the framework of the traditional system of scientific communication, need to seek new forms and areas of work in order not to fall out of electronic scientific communications. The analysis of the library experience of foreign and domestic universities on research support, that can be borrowed by research libra-
ries, has shown that academic libraries are in active search of specific forms to support research, however none was used by any of the libraries. There is a strong trend to deal with all aspects of information treatment that are associated with storage, searching, and using the full-texts and metadata. Changes in the content of information, bibliographic and library work require major changes in the contents of the libra-
rian training. Perhaps there will appear new terms referring to the historically formed current professions.

here are systematized the research studies by the Russian scientists over recent years on the development of technology of Selective Dissemination of Information (SDI), which is an important method of differentiated information-bibliographic services.Considering the evolution of SDI development and analysing the current experience of informing the users, the author concludes that the use of modern information-communication technologies (ICT) for execution of query should not substitute the library process technology of SDI. Modern technology shall be used for modernization of the forms of supplying information, methods of its obtaining and communicating to the users. It is mandatory to keep the feedback and primary bibliographic informing, which is the basis of the SDI system. In this context, an example of sending communications from different databases on the targeted subject is provided.

Publications on the SDI system are described by the types of libraries and by the regional principle. Analysing the work of University libraries devoted to the issues of SDI development and modernization with the use of information technology, the author believes that the information support of scientists of the Russian Academy of Sciences can be considered as the methodical basis for SDI development in the higher education system.

Analysis of publications demonstrates that in all regions of the country the libraries are paying a lot of attention to this topic and study the efficiency of the forms of user services. It is noted that the idea of leveraging online media, open-access journals and social media greatly enhances serviceability in libraries of the Russian Federation. Publications review proves the conclusion made in the early adoption of auto-
mation to library processes that future of SDI development — is the connection of information activities of libraries with the capabilities of modern ICT. The review can be used for improving user services in libraries.

The article presents the history of book occurrence in Yakutia, gives a brief review of the litera-
ture on this subject, and reveals the first information and facts on the existence of books in this region. The author analyzes the list of service books, sent to the Lensky Ostrog in 1638, which reflects the earliest evidence of book emergence, the facts of origination of private books sale-purchase and possession, the circle of owners, etc. The article reviews the mechanisms of book collections formation of the Religious Department, analyzes the registers of the books obligatory for ordering by the decree of the Ecclesiastical Consistory and the regulations for opening field churches with books for the people with a nomadic way of life. The author characterizes the churches of Yakutia as educational and spiritual centers of targeted dissemination and distribution of books, notes the features of mandatory distribution in the churches of Yakutia and the origins of formation of book orders from private booksellers by the Religious Department.

A significant place in the article is given to the educational institutions of Yakutia of the period under review: their sorts, types, forms of ownership, geographic location, and a list of the bookselling firms that collaborated with both spiritual and secular educational institutions. The geography of orders, the orga-
nization and the quantitative and qualitative composition of the collections of educational and teachers’ libraries, the acquisition profiles via the printed catalogs of bookstores and the circulars, as well as the formation of book collections of the educational institutions of Yakutia are of great interest.

The article describes and studies the manuscripts (codices and fragments) of displaced cultural valuables, which were received by the Lenin State Library of the USSR (Russian State Library now) after the Second World War. To date, this topic remains insufficiently developed — both in respect of individual manuscripts, and in respect of collections. The materials originating from the local stores of East Prussia (and covering the history of these lands) are the main research object of this article. The authors give codicological and paleographic characteristics of certain manuscripts, constituting the most important and valuable part of the trophy collection № 943 (“Kaliningrad”), as well as describe some of the German manuscripts relating to East Prussia from the new acquisitions of the Manuscripts Department of the RSL. The manuscript books and fragments are distributed in thematic groups, including liturgics, theology, philology, “Rossica”, law, natural sciences. There are interesting materials from the field of Jewish stu-
dies. Among the most valuable, there are the materials on the history of the Teutonic Order, the manuscript of the pastor Zeisold (beginning of the 18th century) with an outlined description of Russia under Peter I, the Charter of Leopold I to the title of count for Johann Ernst Wallenrode, the 17th century epistolary collection “Original Letters of the Jesuits, Sent to Rome from China, Japan and India”. The manuscripts from East Prussia are of undoubted scientific interest due to many historical “intersections” of the history of that region with the history of the Russian state.

The article is devoted to the history and current state of scientific study, preservation and publication of Indian manuscripts heritage. Special attention is paid to the activities of the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts and National Mission for Manuscripts on digitization of ancient and medieval monuments of book culture and creation of National digital library of manuscripts of India. The author describes the history of Khuda Bakhsh Oriental Public Library (Patna), which was opened in 1891 thanks to the illustrious Muslim public figure, lawyer and bibliophile Khuda Bakhsh. Currently the Khuda Bakhsh Oriental Public Library is one of the leading national research and enlightenment institutions in India, specializing in the history and culture of the Medieval India and Islamic East. The role of library in the implementation of the national program on preservation, study, cataloguing, conservation, restoration and digitization of medieval oriental manuscripts (Arabic, Persian, in Pashto and Urdu) is characterized. There is also emphasized the continuity of India’s current library policy with the views of Khuda Bakhsh about the transformation of book repositories into the centers for the spread of knowledge.

Translated by: Natalia V. Chernikova, Russian State Library.

The mission of the National Library of France (BnF) — is to preserve and promote the national and world heritage, covering 40 centuries of the history of human thought. For many years, BnF conducts the policy focused on preservation of documents in electronic form, and develops partnerships with foreign institutions, which carry out search of the scattered national heritage for its restoration and providing long-term preservation of collections being in a poor physical condition. The purpose of this article is to show the new forms of digital international cooperation that contribute to determination of the principles of shared responsibility in the field of preservation and promotion of heritage, considered as global commons of mankind. Therefore, the cooperation programmes are a kind of digital continuation of the UNESCO “Memory of the World” Programme, and serve to implement the articles 5.3 and 5.5 of the Recommendations concerning the preservation of, and access to, documentary heritage including in digital form, adopted by the General conference of UNESCO at its 38th session.

One of the first large libraries, created in Russia after the 1917 revolution, was the State Scientific-Technical and Economic Library (SSTEL) of the Scientific and Technical Department of the Supreme Council of the National Economy of the RSFSR (from 1923 — of the USSR). The library was organized June 17, 1918. N.P. Gorbunov, the Chairman of the Collegium of the Scientific and Technical Department, took the most important part in its formation. By 1924, the library holdings consisted of 80 000 books, among which were the country’s only full sets of Russian and foreign journals, books on technology, engineering, exact and natural sciences. The richest acquisition of the State Scientific-Technical and Economic Library became the large library of the former Society for the Advancement of Experienced Sciences and their Practical Applications named after Kh.S. Ledentsov, housed in a specially equipped library building. The “Ledentsovskaya” library became the Central Department of SSTEL, and its location near five Moscow Universities made it the center of attraction for students-readers. The SSTEL success in 1922—1926 was associated with the active work of its Head, M.V. Panov, as well as the support of Academician V.N. Ipatyev, the Chairman of the Collegium of the Scientific and Technical Department of the Supreme Council of the National Economy.

In 1923—1926 in the Supreme Council of the National Economy appeared and began to dominate another library center, the Central Library of the Supreme Council of National Economy, headed by the intellectual revolutionary L.A. Schlossberg. Having received its status of the main one in the system of the entire Supreme Economic Council, the Central Library, like SSTEL, absorbed many of the book collections, inherited from the abolished institutions of the tsarist time. September 13, 1927, on the basis of these two libraries, there was established the unified State Scientific Library of the Scientific and Technical Department of the Supreme Council of National Economy, which existed then, under the leadership of various People’s Commissariats and Ministries, until October 1958.

The article is devoted to the analysis of the readership of the Nizhny Novgorod State Regional Universal Scientific Library named after V.I. Lenin in the 1930-ies. This topic, having importance from the point of view of studying the history of librarianship, as well as the social history of the region and the State, hitherto did not receive the sufficient development. In the study, based on archival materials, there are presented the statistical indicators, clearly demonstrating the ratio of representatives of different groups of regular readers of the library, as well as changes in this ratio at separate stages of the period under review. The analysis of the readers’ composition and nature of the readership activity is conducted. The method of categorization, the assignment of readers to one or another group, gives an insight into the specific features of the system of registration and recording the readers’ requests, existed in the library institution in the 1930-ies. Given statistics of visitors based on the data, recorded in the reporting documentation, allows to trace the dynamics of reading activity (both in general and for individual groups) during the considered decade. In addition, the marked indicators to some extent can serve as a basis to assess the nature of demand for library services among specific categories of population, representatives of various professions.

The article describes the formation and development of library valeology as an independent scientific discipline of library science. Its object, subject and tasks are revealed. The importance of the development of library valeology in enhancing the effectiveness of the sociocultural and information activities of libraries is analysed. There are used the methods of terminological analysis, as well as comparative, bibliographic and other research methods. It is shown that the library valeology as a separate branch of library science studies and develops the issues on history, theory, methodology and organization of library and information activities aimed at the preservation, maintenance and restoration of health. It provides the scientific substantiation for the system of library and information support of the healthy lifestyle, not only for the readers of the library and its employees, but also for all people who need valeological infor-
mation. Library valeology explores and develops the theoretical and methodological principles of library and information activities in the formation of social health, and sets theoretical and practical tasks of informational support for the health culture of interaction subjects, which are determined by the specifics and peculiarities of the social functioning of libraries.

The practical use of the research results of lidrary valeology is to provide some assistance in socializing, educating and raising the level of education of visitors and library workers. Forming the culture of health of library users will be effective, if among the social functions of the library the valeological function will occupy one of the leading places. The development of library valeology will help libraries to reach a higher level of sociocultural activities, to modernize the infrastructure in accordance with the global standards, to expand the range of services and increase the number of regular users.

There is presented an overview on the 10th All-Russian Meeting of the Heads of Information Services for Culture and Art “Libraries in the information support for realization of state cultural policy”, held on 3—4 October, 2017, and organized by the Russian State Library in the partnership with the Saint-Petersburg State Institute of Culture. The central theme of the discussion was the development of information involvement of the regional libraries in the implementation of state cultural policy, enhancement of the scientific information activity of libraries in the sphere of culture and art, and increase of their innovation capacity. Within the frames of the meeting there was held a webinar on the topic “Modern information resources on culture and art”; there also took place the award ceremony of the winners of the 6th All-Russian competition for the best e-publication on culture and art, which was attended by 63 state and municipal libraries from 44 regions of Russia. At the special meeting of libraries — participants of the Russian system of scientific and information support in the sphere of culture (Rosinformkultura) there was announced on the adoption of a new edition of the Regulations on Rosinformkultura, and there was elected its Board. The Final document calls to promote the development of electronic information resources on culture and art, to ensure the relevance of information and its accessibility on the Internet, and actively participate in the projects of Rosinformkultura.